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115 Ala. 529

Scott v. Taul

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1896

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1896-11-15

Tried before the Hon. H. C. Speake. This action was brought by the appellant, J. C. Scott, against C. M. Taul and G. L. Taul, who was his wife, and counted upon a promissory note, which the complaint alleged was transferred, sold and assigned to the plaintiff before the commencement of the action, bona fide for a valuable consideration and without notice of any defenses thereto on the part of the defendants.

Relies on First National Bank v. Nelson · Osborne v. Cooper · Brown v. First National Bank

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1896-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently May 1943

16 state decisions

70189619001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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HARALSON, J.

¶1There can be no doubt but that a married woman may, with the assent or concurrence of her husband expressed in writing, execute a note payable in bank, or a bill of exchange, as well as any other contract into which she is authorized to enter by the statute. — Code of 1886, § 2346. She may contract with her husband, subject to the rules of law as to contracts by and between persons standing in confidential relations ; but she can not directly or indirectly become the surety for the husband. — Code of 1886, § 2349. We have recently held that she may convey her land, on an adequate, fair consideration, directly to her husband, and if there was no consideration therefor, an adequate consideration being alleged in the conveyance, it would be good when conveyed by the husband to a bona ficle purchaser for value.Osborne v. Cooper, 113 Ala. 405.

¶2The note in the complaint, having been made payable at a.bauk, was governed by the commercial law. The purchaser of such a paper, in the usual course of business, before its maturity, for a valuable consideration, having no notice of defenses that existed between the original parties, or have subsequently arisen, as we have frequently held, is a bona fide holder for value, and as such, takes the instrument freed from defenses which were available between the original parties.—Brown v. First Nat. Bank of Tuscaloosa, 103 Ala. 123.

¶3The complaint avers that the note, before its maturity and the commencement of suit, was sold, assigned and indorsed to plaintiff, bona fide, for a valuable consideration, and without any defect in the same or any defense thereto. If this be true, the defense set up in the 6th plea was not good. When the wife signed this note as co-maker with her husband, there being nothing on its face to indicate that she signed it as a surety, and placed it in the hands of the payees, she armed them with the power to negotiate it to an innocent purchaser for value without notice of defenses, so as to cut off the defense *534now set up by her, — that she was a mere surety on the note.—Brown’s Case, 103 Ala. 123, supra; First Nat. Bank v. Nelson, 106 Ala. 535; Osborne v. Cooper, 113 Ala. 405, supra. The demurrer to the plea should have been sustained.

¶4The fact that the plaintiff was a bona fide purchaser for value of the note sued on before its maturity, was established without any conflict in the evidence, and the court should have given the general charge for him, as requested. It is unnecessary to notice other rulings.

¶5Reversed and remanded.

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